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This appears to be part of a draft of J. B. Alexander's "Reminiscences of the past sixty years." At the top of the first of three pages is the word, "Prefix."

Transcription

"We are frequently criticised [sic] for saying the past ages were better than the present. In many things the criticism is just, but in the past it appears to have been an unwritten law to commemorate the virtues of patriots and heroes, and if aspersions were cast on honored names, the most eloquent orators defended their fame when assailed by calumny. For more than a decade Mr. Davis held exalted positions in the councils of the government. No blur ever stained his character, or whisper uttered against his patriotism. He was the idol of Miss. and the peer of the ablest statesmen in America. Such confidence did the Southern people have in him, in his ability to champion the grand principle of State-Rights, to lead a nation strugling [sic] to be born, that against his protest he was elected to the Chief Magistracy without opposition. To formulate a government for ten million of people, to begin 'de novo' in the very throes of a gigantic revolution, to maintain the supremacy of the civil authority while organising [sic] large armies, and that too in the face of an enemy vastly superior in numbers, and having the advantage of a thoroughly established government, with a well equiped [sic] army and navy, and having all the munitions of war that a great and mighty nation could desire, with equal potency, producing and entailing through heredity, evils as pernicious to character, as their counterpart does in bodily ailments opening up avenues of disease that will sap the vital energies. After carefully examining the primordial elements interwoven in their character, we are not surprised at the particular kind of morbific granulations outcroping [sic] during the dark days of this historic period. The Puritans, oppressed and persecuted till life was a burden, braved the dangers of the sea and the wilderness for the sake of religious freedom. For this we honor them. But their disposition became soured through long years of suffering. The sunshine of contentment found no lodgment in their breast, but instead a stern bitterness. And with their enlarged freedom they mistook license for liberty, and became merciless oppressors of all who differed from them. Quakers and Baptists who refused to subscribe to their code were whiped [sic] and if that failed to bring them to terms, they were carried far into the wilderness and left to the mercy of wild beasts and more savage men. Unfortunately this spirit of intolerance did not die with the earlier generations, but was through heredity sufficiently active to be the ruling spirit even for a decade after 1861. Here was the pandora's box from which issued discord virulent enough, if given the power, to have converted the white race of the south into perpetual slavery. in the city of Boston, the Rev. Dr. Leland, a Prof. in the Theological Seminary in Columbia S. C. and one of the most noted divines in the country, while on a visit to the friends of his childhood, in antebellum times, was denied the poor privilege, in his old age, of preaching in his father's pulpit; but was prayed for by the then pastor, that the "Good Lord would open the eyes of the poor miserable wretch, who thought it no wrong to hold property in slaves.' However unpleasant certain facts may sound to some people of culture, yet it is necessary to refresh memory in order the present generation may catch the true inwardness of the times that would produce such results as we are to discuss on this occasion. To arrive at a just concluision of our subject, one that has never been publicly discussed, it is necessary to hold prejudice in abeyance, and examine the facts of the case, as a jurist weighs evidence, and allow the public to render the verdict."

J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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Materials in the Digital Collections at Atkins Library are provided free for educational use under fair use as outlined by current U.S. Copyright law and accompanying guidelines. Written permission from the J. Murrey Atkins Library or the rights holder must be obtained before using an item for publishing or commercial purposes.

J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Rights

Materials in the Digital Collections at Atkins Library are provided free for educational use under fair use as outlined by current U.S. Copyright law and accompanying guidelines. Written permission from the J. Murrey Atkins Library or the rights holder must be obtained before using an item for publishing or commercial purposes.